The daily average high (red line) and low (blue line) temperature, with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands. The thin dotted lines are the corresponding average perceived temperatures.

The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the hourly average temperatures for the quarter of the year centered on January. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the color is the average temperature for that hour and day.

Clouds

The month of January in Waite Park experiences essentially constant cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy remaining about 59% throughout the month.

The clearest day of the month is January 15, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 42% of the time.

For reference, on February 6, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 61%, while on July 28, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 72%.

Precipitation

A wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. In Waite Park, the chance of a wet day over the course of January is essentially constant, remaining around 7% throughout.

For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 41% on June 20, and its lowest chance is 7% on January 28.

Over the course of January in Waite Park, the chance of a day with only rain remains an essentially constant 1% throughout, the chance of a day with mixed snow and rain remains an essentially constant 1% throughout, and the chance of a day with only snow remains an essentially constant 6% throughout.

The average rainfall (solid line) accumulated over the course of a sliding 31-day period centered on the day in question, with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands. The thin dotted line is the corresponding average liquid-equivalent snowfall.

Snowfall

We report snowfall in liquid-equivalent terms. The actual depth of new snowfall is typically between 5 and 10 times the liquid-equivalent amount, assuming the ground is frozen. As with rainfall, we consider the liquid-equivalent snowfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day.

The average sliding 31-day liquid-equivalent snowfall during January in Waite Park is essentially constant, remaining about 0.3 inches throughout, and rarely exceeding 1.0 inches or falling to 0.0 inches.

The lowest average 31-day liquid-equivalent accumulation is 0.3 inches on January 29.

The average liquid-equivalent snowfall (solid line) accumulated over the course of a sliding 31-day period centered on the day in question, with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands. The thin dotted line is the corresponding average rainfall.

Sun

Over the course of January in Waite Park, the length of the day is increasing. From the start to the end of the month, the length of the day increases by 56 minutes, implying an average daily increase of 1 minute, 52 seconds, and weekly increase of 13 minutes, 5 seconds.

The shortest day of the month is January 1, with 8 hours, 47 minutes of daylight and the longest day is January 31, with 9 hours, 43 minutes of daylight.

The number of hours during which the Sun is visible (black line). From bottom (most yellow) to top (most gray), the color bands indicate: full daylight, twilight (civil, nautical, and astronomical), and full night.

The latest sunrise of the month in Waite Park is 7:57 AM on January 1 and the earliest sunrise is 18 minutes earlier at 7:39 AM on January 31.

The earliest sunset is 4:44 PM on January 1 and the latest sunset is 38 minutes later at 5:22 PM on January 31.

Daylight saving time is observed in Waite Park during 2018, but it neither starts nor ends during January, so the entire month is in standard time.

For reference, on June 21, the longest day of the year, the Sun rises at 5:27 AM and sets 15 hours, 42 minutes later, at 9:09 PM, while on December 21, the shortest day of the year, it rises at 7:54 AM and sets 8 hours, 42 minutes later, at 4:35 PM.

The solar day over the course of January. From bottom to top, the black lines are the previous solar midnight, sunrise, solar noon, sunset, and the next solar midnight. The day, twilights (civil, nautical, and astronomical), and night are indicated by the color bands from yellow to gray.

Humidity

We base the humidity comfort level on the dew point, as it determines whether perspiration will evaporate from the skin, thereby cooling the body. Lower dew points feel drier and higher dew points feel more humid. Unlike temperature, which typically varies significantly between night and day, dew point tends to change more slowly, so while the temperature may drop at night, a muggy day is typically followed by a muggy night.

The chance that a given day will be muggy in Waite Park is essentially constant during January, remaining around 0% throughout.

For reference, on July 20, the muggiest day of the year, there are muggy conditions 27% of the time, while on January 1, the least muggy day of the year, there are muggy conditions 0% of the time.

Wind

This section discusses the wide-area hourly average wind vector (speed and direction) at 10 meters above the ground. The wind experienced at any given location is highly dependent on local topography and other factors, and instantaneous wind speed and direction vary more widely than hourly averages.

The average hourly wind speed in Waite Park is essentially constant during January, remaining within 0.2 miles per hour of 12.1 miles per hour throughout.

For reference, on April 2, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 12.5 miles per hour, while on August 1, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 8.7 miles per hour.

The highest daily average wind speed during January is 12.3 miles per hour on January 15.

The percentage of hours in which the mean wind direction is from each of the four cardinal wind directions (north, east, south, and west), excluding hours in which the mean wind speed is less than 1 mph. The lightly tinted areas at the boundaries are the percentage of hours spent in the implied intermediate directions (northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest).

Growing Season

Definitions of the growing season vary throughout the world, but for the purposes of this report, we define it as the longest continuous period of non-freezing temperatures (≥ 32°F) in the year (the calendar year in the Northern Hemisphere, or from July 1 until June 30 in the Southern Hemisphere).

The growing season in Waite Park typically lasts for 4.8 months (147 days), from around May 6 to around September 30, rarely starting before April 17 or after May 25, and rarely ending before September 13 or after October 18.

The month of January in Waite Park is reliably fully outside of the growing season.

Time Spent in Various Temperature Bands and the Growing Season in January

Growing degree days are a measure of yearly heat accumulation used to predict plant and animal development, and defined as the integral of warmth above a base temperature, discarding any excess above a maximum temperature. In this report, we use a base of 50°F and a cap of 86°F.

The average accumulated growing degree days in Waite Park are essentially constant during January, remaining around 0°F throughout.

The average growing degree days accumulated over the course of January, with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands.

Solar Energy

This section discusses the total daily incident shortwave solar energy reaching the surface of the ground over a wide area, taking full account of seasonal variations in the length of the day, the elevation of the Sun above the horizon, and absorption by clouds and other atmospheric constituents. Shortwave radiation includes visible light and ultraviolet radiation.

The average daily incident shortwave solar energy in Waite Park is gradually increasing during January, rising by 0.7 kWh, from 1.5 kWh to 2.2 kWh, over the course of the month.

The average daily shortwave solar energy reaching the ground per square meter (orange line), with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands.

Topography

For the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of Waite Park are 45.557 deg latitude, -94.224 deg longitude, and 1,056 ft elevation.

The topography within 2 miles of Waite Park contains only modest variations in elevation, with a maximum elevation change of 138 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 1,058 feet. Within 10 miles also contains only modest variations in elevation (351 feet). Within 50 miles contains only modest variations in elevation (692 feet).

The area within 2 miles of Waite Park is covered by artificial surfaces (87%) and cropland (10%), within 10 miles by cropland (69%) and trees (18%), and within 50 miles by cropland (71%) and trees (21%).

Data Sources

This report illustrates the typical weather in Waite Park year round, based on a statistical analysis of historical hourly weather reports and model reconstructions from January 1, 1980 to December 31, 2016.

Temperature and Dew Point

There are 4 weather stations near enough to contribute to our estimation of the temperature and dew point in Waite Park.

The estimated value at Waite Park is computed as the weighted average of the individual contributions from each station, with weights proportional to the inverse of the distance between Waite Park and a given station.

Other Data

All other weather data, including cloud cover, precipitation, wind speed and direction, and solar flux, come from NASA's MERRA-2 Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis . This reanalysis combines a variety of wide-area measurements in a state-of-the-art global meteorological model to reconstruct the hourly history of weather throughout the world on a 50-kilometer grid.

Disclaimer

The information on this site is provided as is, without any assurances as to its accuracy or suitability for any purpose. Weather data is prone to errors, outages, and other defects. We assume no responsibility for any decisions made on the basis of the content presented on this site.

We draw particular cautious attention to our reliance on the MERRA-2 model-based reconstructions for a number of important data series. While having the tremendous advantages of temporal and spatial completeness, these reconstructions: (1) are based on computer models that may have model-based errors, (2) are coarsely sampled on a 50 km grid and are therefore unable to reconstruct the local variations of many microclimates, and (3) have particular difficulty with the weather in some coastal areas, especially small islands.

We further caution that our travel scores are only as good as the data that underpin them, that weather conditions at any given location and time are unpredictable and variable, and that the definition of the scores reflects a particular set of preferences that may not agree with those of any particular reader.